Lucas Punkari
Overcast skies failed to dampen the enthusiasm among the 89 teams that launched from the Sorting Gap Marina this morning as the 19th-annual Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship got underway.
“It’s been two years since I fished in this tournament so I’m looking forward to getting back out on the water here again,” Rollie Roy enthused before he and his partner, Ryan Hastie, headed out on Rainy Lake.
“We haven’t done so well in our pre-fishing leading into today, but hopefully things can turn around for us starting today,” he added.
But it wasn’t just returning anglers who were looking forward to this year’s event.
First-time competitor Colton Spicer was anxious to get things started with his partner, Braedon Keast.
“I’m really excited about it,” Spicer remarked.
“One of my uncles [Darrin Ward] fishes in the tournament every year, and I go fishing with him on a regular basis,” he noted.
“So I’m really looking forward to competing in it for the first time.”
With temperatures being much cooler than they have been over the past couple of weeks, many anglers have found the fishing to be a lot tougher than they expected.
“Things didn’t go the greatest for us [during pre-fishing] but we did try a few new things that we hope will work out in our favour,” said Keast.
“The fishing has been slow, but I think you are still going to see the big weights like there always is,” noted Paul Visser, who is fishing with Matt Goldamer.
“But I don’t think you are going to see a lot of big, giant bags coming in,” he conceded.
The biggest ‘X’ factor as to who will emerge victorious come Saturday afternoon may be Mother Nature, with thunderstorms in the forecast for later today and showers likely for tomorrow.
“As long as the wind stays down, though, I think things should be all right,” said Rick Cooper, who is paired up with Chad Buist.
“High winds are the biggest problem for most guys as that can really screw up your plans that you may have,” he explained.
“But from what I’ve seen, the winds are not going be as high as some have predicted.”
The Day 1 weigh-in gets underway at 3:30 p.m. under the big tent at the Sorting Gap Marina.
The Day 2 launch also gets underway at 7 a.m. tomorrow, with the weigh-in again starting at 3:30 p.m.
Boats also will launch at 7 a.m. on Saturday.
But the final weigh-in will start a half-hour earlier (3 p.m.), with the top 10 boats being wheeled into the tent around 5 p.m.
